Monday, November 21, 2011

Pumpkin Pancakes with Apple CIder Syrup

Sometimes life just gets away from me. Over the past few months I feel like I have been running non stop, the hours running into days, days into weeks, and weeks into months. I realized that I haven't taken a full week off of work since last December, so I thought, when better to take some time off than the week of one of my very favorite holidays-Thanksgiving? So here I sit, the week stretching ahead of me, with the promises of relaxation, family, friends and food- could it be any better?

I am fully in the holiday
spirit at this point, embracing all things winter, Thanksgiving and yes, even Christmas, awaiting more snow flakes, and cozying up with hearty dishes. Sunday afternoon I found myself craving some breakfast foods for lunch, so I indulged my craving and found a recipe for Pumpkin Pancakes.

For each pancake, scoop 1/4 cup of batter on to a hot griddle or nonstick skillet sprayed with cooking spray. Turn pancakes when bubbles appear and edges are cooked, after about 2 minutes. Cook for 1 1/2 minutes on second side.

Makes 8-10 pancakes.

While the pancake batter was resting I turned my attention to what I'd be topping them with. I knew that plain old maple syrup, while delicious, wasn't going to do these guys justice. I wanted something to really celebrate the season, something that would serve as a perfect compliment to the beautiful pumpkin. I decided that nothing would do better than Apple Cider Syrup.

2 cups of Apple Cider2 t pumpkin pie spice

Pour the cider into a small pot, add the pumpkin pie spice and set over medium high heat. Allow to boil, uncovered, until the liquid reduces into a thick syrup. Remove from the heat.

Pour over a stack of piping hot pancakes.

The flavors here were exactly what I was hoping. The pancakes were rich in pumpkin flavor, and the syrup had the beautiful sweet tart flavor of apples that brought the two together into beautiful autumn harmony. These were easy to whip up, and since they contain many of the same ingredients as other Thanksgiving dishes, they are a perfect Thanksgiving morning breakfast to enjoy while watching that fabulous Macy's Parade!